I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment of Ehlinger's talent or abilities as a QB, although it seems a little needlessly inflammatory (but I understand your tone based on the context here). Anyone who watched Sam with any kind of objectivity could see that he was more of a fullback who could throw the ball well enough rather than a top line QB. If someone is arguing that he had a great arm or processed things quickly...well, they don't know ball. But he was the best we had, and he played hard, and he played for a dumbass HC. We won a lot of games despite Herman because Ehlinger refused to turtle up. I think what most people who are fans of Ehlinger liked about him are intangible qualities - toughness, leadership, love of Texas. Even with all his flaws, I'm still a fan because he loves the school as much as I do, and it showed. It has little to do with his actual level of play. I think this image sums it up:
Who was rating these guys as QBs? I love Swoopes because that poor bastard was an great TE that was forced to play QB because Strong had no idea what the fuck he was doing. But not because of anything he did under center.
The Westlake honks are not quite a cult, but they do love them some Westlake boys and have a hard time seeing any flaws with those red and blue colored glasses. It would be like me demanding that Charlie Wright getting more playing time just because he went to AHS.
I was a Major truther back in the day and even I never hated Simms. He was a solid QB and he played hard. Plus he played for Texas. I always told people that even if I preferred Major as QB1, that doesn't mean that I won't support the guy actually taking snaps. I swear there were Texas fans who wanted us to lose just so they could be right about Simms. Besides, my issue was with Brown who actually made the decision. The hate for him never made sense - it always seemed like it was based on the perception that he had everything handed to him because of who his dad was. Which is disconcertingly similar to how Aggies and Sooners talk about Manning these days.
Weird how history seems to keep repeating itself.